8.  The applicant was born in 1953 and lives in Slavyansk-na-Kubani in the Krasnodar Region.
9.  The applicant is a former member of the armed forces. In 1993, after serving on the island of Sakhalin, he retired and moved to Slavyansk-na-Kubani in the Krasnodar Region. He applied to the Slavyansk Town Council for State housing aid. He was put on a waiting list but, since that had no effect, he brought proceedings against the Town Council in the Slavyansk Town Court.
10.  On 31 March 1998 the Slavyansk Town Court received a letter from the President of the Krasnodar Regional Court (no. 03-06, dated 11 March 1998). The letter, which was distributed to the presidents of all the town and district courts in the region, recommended that, in order to allow the local authorities to function properly, the courts refrain from seizing their bank accounts when giving judgments in cases brought against them by individuals for recovery of pensions and social benefits including State housing aid, and that they provide, in the operative provisions of judgments in such cases, that payments be made as soon as funds were received from an appropriate State budget (district, town, regional or federal) and in the order set out on a waiting list drawn up by the defendant authority.
11.  On 6 April 1998 the Town Court examined the case. The Town Council submitted at the hearing that the applicant was entitled by law to State housing aid for retired military personnel. However, for the past few years it had not received any funds from the federal budget for that purpose. The court found that the applicant, as a retired serviceman, met the statutory requirements for entitlement to State housing aid financed by the federal budget. In the operative provisions of its judgment of 6 April 1998 the court ordered:
“that the sum of 113,040 roubles be recovered from the Slavyansk-na-Kubani Town Council in the Krasnodar Region in favour of Vladimir Nikolayevich Konovalov, as a person discharged from military service and transferred to the reserve, as a grant for the purchase of housing;
that payment be made from the federal budget of the Russian Federation, upon receipt of funds from the budget and subject to the waiting list.
The judgment may be appealed against to the Krasnodar Regional Court through the Slavyansk Town Court within a ten-day term.”
The authority did not appeal and the judgment of 6 April 1998 became final on 17 April 1998. On 19 May 1998 the court issued a writ of execution. According to the applicant, enforcement proceedings were initiated on the same day.
12.  On 4 and 17 December 1998 the Ministry of Finance and the local authority responded to an enquiry from the applicant, informing him about the lack of federal funds for the payment of State housing aid to him.
13.  As the judgment had not been executed, the applicant brought an application for index-linking of the award in line with an increase in the market prices of immovable property. At a hearing before the Town Court the defendant town council did not object to the applicant’s claim. In a judgment of 19 April 2000 the Town Court increased the amount awarded to the applicant in the judgment of 6 April 1998 for the purchase of housing to 377,020 Russian roubles (“RUR”). In the operative provisions of the judgment the court ordered:
“that the sum of 377,020 roubles be recovered from the Slavyansk-na-Kubani Town Council in the Krasnodar Region in favour of Vladimir Nikolayevich Konovalov as a grant for the purchase of housing;
that the payment be made from the federal budget of the Russian Federation, upon receipt of funds from the budget and subject to the waiting list.
The judgment may be appealed against to the Krasnodar Regional Court through the Slavyansk Town Court within ten days.”
14.  In a letter of 28 April 2000 the Krasnodar regional prosecutor’s office informed the applicant that the local authority had not received funds from the federal budget for the payment of State housing aid to retired servicemen.
15.  According to the applicant, enforcement proceedings in respect of the judgment of 19 April 2000 were initiated on 11 May 2000. According to the Government, the applicant lodged a writ of execution to that end with the court bailiffs on 30 October 2000. Neither party submitted a copy of the relevant documents to the Court.
16.  The judgments of 6 April 1998 and 19 April 2000 were not executed.
17.  On 13 October 2000 the Krasnodar regional prosecutor’s office lodged two applications for supervisory review of the judgments. It requested that the judgments be quashed and a fresh examination of the applicant’s case be ordered.
18.  In a decision of 2 November 2000 the Presidium of the Krasnodar Regional Court granted the application concerning the judgment of 6 April 1998, quashed that judgment on the ground that it conflicted with substantive and procedural laws and ordered a fresh examination of the case.
19.  On 20 December 2000 the Town Court discontinued proceedings in the case relating to the judgment of 19 April 2000.
20.  Applications by the applicant for the decision of 2 November 2000 to be quashed by way of supervisory review were rejected by the Supreme Court, as follows from its letters of 17 January and 19 March 2001.
21.  On 22 March 2001 the applicant informed the Town Court that he wished to withdraw his action and requested that the proceedings for a fresh examination of his case, as ordered by the supervisory court’s decision of 2 November 2000, be discontinued. The applicant explained that he had done so because he had been assured by the head of the Town Council that he would be given a certificate to receive free housing. In a decision of 22 March 2001 the Town Court granted his request and discontinued the proceedings. The applicant did not appeal against that decision. On 3 April 2001 the enforcement proceedings were discontinued.
22.  In August 2001 the applicant learned that the Town Council had refused to give him the housing certificate.